The Daily Faceoff Show: It’s been a historic season for the Florida Panthers
After the Florida Panthers had another dominant offensive weekend with back-to-back 6-1 wins over the Winnipeg Jets and Detroit Red Wings, they extended their win streak to 10 games and find themselves in pretty rare territory.
As of right now, they are at a plus-99 goal differential, one back of being just the third team in the salary cap era to have a plus-100 goal differential, alongside the 2005-06 Ottawa Senators and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.
Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk hopped on The Daily Faceoff Show to talk about the dominant season the Panthers have been having.
Frank Seravalli: It’s a historic offensive season as well, or at least it’s on the brink of that, if you take a look at this board as well. And that is the Florida Panthers are on the verge of setting the NHL’s salary cap era record for goals in a single season. You see the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the best regular season teams of all time, 319 goals back in 2018-19. Didn’t get them a lot, because they ended up being swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
But the Florida Panthers are six goals away from setting that salary cap era record. With all the goal-scoring that took place in the 80s, there’s a lot of teams that have hit 400, but still, in this era, this day and age, to be north of four goals a game is absolutely ridiculous. And you take a look at the Florida Panthers and their players this season, 11 or 12 of them have set new career highs, or at least tied career highs in goals, assists, and/or points. Jonathan Huberdeau is squarely in the Art Ross trophy race, as we enter the final two weeks of the regular season. It’s been a crazy year for the Florida Panthers.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, it’s been insane, and you talk about those guys setting career highs, the new guy Claude Giroux, who comes in and just fits into this lineup like a glove in the way he’s able to produce. I mean, 16 points in 13 games since joining the Panthers, there’s no doubt that he’s been an impact piece for them.
And the other thing I love is that you just find those random guys around the lineup who are finding ways to produce. A guy like Gustav Forsling, in this 10-game winning streak for the Panthers, he’s got seven goals. I couldn’t even tell you if Gustav Forsling has scored seven goals in his entire career. But he’s done it in this 10-game stretch. He’s also one of the highest scoring 3-on-3 players in the NHL this year.
The fact that they have their big guns just rolling, and like you said, a bunch of guys just having career years, it’s insane for the Panthers, and they’ll look to avoid the fate that that high scoring Tampa team in 2018-19 did when it gets to the playoffs.
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I have a feeling they’ll be in better shape. It’s all going to come down to the matchup though, I think that’s why it’s so key to keep an eye on the standings. The Washington Capitals, they’ve got a lot to play for over this last stretch here to try and avoid the Florida Panthers team like an absolute buzzsaw in the first round.
You can watch the full episode here…